Allergies are worse, but why?
Students Win Regional Emmys
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Vol. 133 NO. 5
Brandon Mattesich Editor-In-Chief
“I
t’s been a long five years,” Associated Students of Central Washington University (ASCWU) President Hondo Acosta-Vega said reflecting on his time as president. “All I can say is just, thank you for putting your trust in me, and for your support, and I hope that moving forward, I can keep making everybody proud.” Acosta-Vega has been a CWU student for five years, a journey he said he could never have dreamed of. “I didn’t ever think I would ever come to college, and it took some people pushing me to get me to come to college,” Acosta-Vega said. “I graduated high school with a very low 1.7 GPA, and I didn’t think I had it cut out to be a college graduate. So knowing that I get to walk into commencement here in just two weeks is just a very surreal experience that I’m just really excited to get a chance to actually experience,” Acosta-Vega continued. Now, as the latest generation of Wildcats prepares to graduate, so does Acosta-Vega, whose year-long role as ASCWU President will soon be taken over by Jada Aurellia Chaplin. In the closing days of his term, Acosta-Vega sat down with The Observer to talk through the legacy he has worked hard to leave behind.
THE WINS
Acosta-Vega, who is an Instructional Foundations major, double-minoring in Creative Writing and Comparative Religions, spoke about the number of projects he has taken
The Observer tried out for CWU Dance Page 10 June 4, 2026
pride in during his time at CWU, starting during his time working with the College of Education and Professional Studies and finishing with his time as ASCWU President. “For me, one of the biggest [wins] that I can think about is when I was the Senator for the College of Education and Professional Studies, when they were starting the reconstruction conversations for Black Hall for the Multi-Cultural Center (MCC),” Acosta-Vega said. “There weren’t a lot of conversations that were being done with my department about what was going to become of the education space that was in that space.” So Acosta-Vega worked hard, he stated, to make sure that the educational space would be able to be moved, and after a period of backand-forth, it was. “They were able to ensure that we would get a new education space in Black Hall, which is now right across from the MCC in a really, really nice multi-room space, and so that was definitely one of the biggest successes,” Acosta-Vega continued. Following his time as Senator for the College of Education and Professional Studies, Acosta-Vega went on to become ASCWU Senate Speaker. According to Acosta-Vega, the biggest success that he landed during his time as Speaker came to fruition during the Services and Activities Committee (S&A) funding situation last Spring, wherein proposed S&A budgets defunded multiple aspects of student life, including Student Media. “The number one [win] was when we were able to work with The Observer and our students in our campus after the S&A deliberation last year,” Acosta-Vega said. “Working with my team, working with the Senate and advocating to the Trustees that there were
mistakes that were made, and the importance of our student media and our other groups on campus.” “Even though it was a little bit of a struggle, we were able to advocate to give ourselves another chance for this year for the new S&A deliberations, and it looked great,” Acosta-Vega continued. “I call that a really big victory, knowing that Student Media stands strong, and I got to support all of you in that endeavor, alongside the Senators.” Acosta-Vega moved on from his time as Senate Speaker to win the general election for ASCWU President, a role he’s held throughout the 2025-2026 academic year. “In the Presidency, man, there’s a lot,” Acosta-Vega said. “We focused this year on just rebuilding Student Government, being more active, and then focusing on the recruitment of first years and second years, and so it’s going to be really exciting to see what becomes of Student Government next year, knowing that a lot of the students that we were able to recruit this year are going to keep going, which is what we wanted to do, so it was really exciting to see.”
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